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Work Session Summaries 2024
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last edited
by Mary.Ellsworth 2 months, 2 weeks ago
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Section5
west end
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Section4 |
Section3 |
Section2 |
Section1
east end |
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Final Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, November 17, 2024
Two volunteers joined Jim and Mary for a final attack on invasive species before the winter. We cleared a large & highly invasive Chinese Silver Grass that somehow got very large before we noticed it.
 Chinese Silver Grass in the middle of Section 2. Ugh! |
 Jim deadheaded the seed heads to prevent spreading them around further |
 Jim and Mary dug out the whole clump! |
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Tasks accomplished today
 Removed lg clump of invasive Silver grass
Removed Bush Honeysuckle, section 3
Cleared vines from Bald Cypress and River Birch, section3
Pulled Porcelainberry vines, and clematis
from Shadbush, section 3.
Picked up trash all sections
Cleaned up the area around the bioswale sign
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Mary dug out Bush Honeysuckle, section 3
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 Julie cleaned up trash everywhere! |
 Jim tackled heavy brambles around the shadbush, section 3. |
Amy cleared vines from Bald Cypress & River birch
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Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, October 27, 2024
Eight volunteers worked together today to clear vines from shrubs and trees. Most of the effort was focused at the west end, section 5, but the shadbush next to the downriver ramp in section 4 was also cleared. A mild sunny day - it was very beautiful by the river. Afterwards three of us went out for breakfast - this could become a habit!
 Marisa picked up at least 3 bags of trash. |
 Reilly and Jillian clear vines from a River Birch |
 Pulling Porcelainberry vines from Red twig dogwood & Inkberry |
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Jim cut out an elm sapling growing into an inkberry bush
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Tasks accomplished today
Severed the 'trunks' of old English Ivy vines
on River Birch, far west end (section 5)
Cleared the fencing around River Birches, Section 5
Cleared vines from Red twig dogwoods,
section 5.
Pulled Porcelainberry vines, and clematis
from Shadbush, section 4.
Picked up 3 bags of trash, section 5.
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Max clears Clematis and Porcelainberry from a Shadbush (Serviceberry)
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Beauty in the Bioswale ...
Purple pink Cosmos flowers in a patch of Bundle Flower
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 River birches |
 Bald Cypress |
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Julia is a hardworking volunteer - willingly tackling
invasive vines.
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 Another attack of the Tick clover!
This obscure little vine hides out in the grasses, becoming all
too evident this time of year as they shed seeds.
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Tasks for September work session
Clear vines off shrubs in sections 1, 4 & 5
Watch out for bees!
Remove Bush Honeysuckle Section 1
Continue to remove Loosestrife
Cut the False Indigobush in Sec 2 and 3
Pick up Pine cones under the big Pine
Cut out weedy trees from the road fence
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Switchgrass in the Fall ...
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Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, September 29, 2024
It was a wet dull morning and no volunteers showed up. Jim and Mary went to Tunniclifs Tavern for breakfast! |
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Bioswale Work Session - Day of Service - Bishop Ireton
Sunday, August 25, 2024
This was a Day of Service for 32 Bishop Ireton rowers, their three coaches, plus three additional volunteers. The group discussed briefly discussed invasive species and the Anacostia watershed, then divided up into five groups to look for 4 invasives to remove, and to clear the rocks along the plaza. What a hard working group! The students & their coaches were a pleasure to work with.
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Bishop Ireton Day of Service
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Tasks accomplished today
Clearing vegetation including saplings from the rocks, section 2
Dug up Purple Loosestrife, section 4
Cut down False Indigobush
Pulled Porcelainberry vines, esp from bushes
Pulled Sweet Autumn Clematis, esp from bushes
Sawed down a 20' Catalpa Tree, section 4 near the Paddler's dock.
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Four invasive species targeted today:
 Sweet Autumn Clematis
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 Purple Loosestrife
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 Porcelainberry vine
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False Indigobush
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THE ROCKS - BEFORE...
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THE ROCKS - AFTER....
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 Volunteer - Luke
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 Volunteer - Gabriella
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Volunteer - Paul
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Volunteer - Jim
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 The tiny green box with a BIG voice - music while they worked! |
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 Victory over the Catalpa tree!
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 A dumpster full of invasive species. Yes! 😄
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 Coach Dalie - former BI rower!
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Tasks for September work session
Clear vines off shrubs in sections 1, 4 & 5
Watch out for bees!
Remove Bush Honeysuckle Section 1
Continue to remove Loosestrife
Cut the False Indigobush in Sec 2 and 3
Pick up Pine cones under the big Pine
Cut out weedy trees from the road fence
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 Purple Loosestrife - so lovely, SO invasive!
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Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, July 28, 2024
We had five energetic volunteers for today's Work Session, representing CRC, GoPink!DC, and DCStrokes - wonderful to have volunteers from different ACBA groups! The focus for the morning was clearing the rocks along the plaza wall, and removing weeds from in front of the bioswale sign. Mary plans to return next week or so to improve that area in front of the sign. The morning was hot so we called it a day and cleaned up the tools, etc by 11:15.
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The whole work team focused on clearing the rocks. Tough work.
Larisa and Julia were stubbornly effective!
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Franci, a first time bioswale volunteer, did a fabulous job below the 3rd ramp.
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Andy cleared an amazing swath from the rocks just above the 3rd ramp.
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 Jim (and Mary) spent much of the time running loaded wheelbarrows to
the dumpster.
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Tasks accomplished today
Clearing vegetation including saplilngs from the rocks.
Clearing heavy grasses etc from in front of the bioswale sign
Tasks for August= work session
Dig out Loosestrife along the seawall
Continue clearing the rocks
Dig out all instances of False Indigobush
Dig Bush honeysuckle from Section 1
Purple Loosestrife is a problem invasive along much of the East Coast
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 The Bioswale team requests the wheelbarrows be returned to the area by
the stake boats between uses.
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Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, June 20, 2024
This Sunday Work Session was cancelled due to hot weather and Mary was not well. Two had signed up
Other work of note:
- In prep for Cap Sprints - Susan Draino & hubs cleared vines from the fence on road side of showers/restrooms
- Russell and others cut back heavy vegetation encroaching & blocking view on M St (Bush Honeysuckle, Trumpet Vine, and others)
 
- Jim Smailes put hardware clothe around the Big Pine to discourage the beaver, which may have already killed the tree 🤞
 
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Bioswale Work Session - with Capital Juniors
Sunday, May 19, 2024
This beautiful morning, we had 4 CRC volunteers, 19 Capital Jrs, and 2 parents, for a total of 25 volunteers attend the work session. After a brief discussion to talk about what a watershed is, we learned to identify and targeted four invasive species, (sweet autumn clematis, brambles, yellow flag iris, bush honeysuckle) for removal. Juniors wrapped up the morning with the planting of two native Virginia Sweetspire bushes to replace two we lost over the past couple years, and then we all had pizza for lunch!
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 Capital Juniors - a hardworking and energetic crew!
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CRC volunteers Andy and JoAnn tackled false indigobush and cleared the base of a bald cypress.
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Tasks accomplished today
Removed clematis, brambles in Section 4
Pulled & dug up bush honeysuckle, section 1
Dug yellow iris, sections 1 & 4
Planted Sweetspire, sec 4
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 A Cap Jr mom girdled the Eng Ivy on the big Cottonwood tree. |
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Two wooden pallets that showed up in the bioswale were removed.
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Tasks for April work session
Clear around shrubs in sections 1, 4 & 5
Remove more Bush Honeysuckle
Continue to remove brambles sprouts & Clematis
Dig the False Indigobush in Sec 1, 2 and 3
Pick up Pine cones under the big Pine
Cut out weedy trees from the road fence
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Bioswale beauty - native blueflag iris
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 One of the new Virginia Sweetspire bushes, still in pot |
 Unpotting one of the Sweetspire bushes |
 Two bushes were planted where two were originally planned, near the Bioretention sign |
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Bioswale Work Session and AWS EARTH DAY Cleanup
Saturday, April 20, 2024
AWS sent us 54 volunteers for the Earth Day Cleanup, with 6 leaders for Earth Day, plus we had 20 volunteers for the bioswale, for a grand total of 76 volunteers. ACBA clubs represented today were CRC, NCAWPA, and DCSRC. What a terrific crowd! Four groups cleaned up in our usual places - our own shoreline, M St SE, Barney Circle, and the hiker biker path up to and beyond the Congressional gate. A total of 36 bags of trash and 18 bags of recyclables were collected.
A special thanks for Tamara, Will Cyphers (DCSRC) and Jim Smailes for sending the great photos!
 Photo of the first volunteers to finish their work. |
 Trash bags and recyclables bags with many of today's volunteers |
 Picking up the smaller items under the PA Ave bridge |
 Enthusiastic volunteers! |
 The kick off - each group took a wheel barrow with supplies. |
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 Using grabbers to pick up trash in the bioswale, section 4
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 A group of 26 students from the country of Georgia joined the event with the Legacy International School, DC via their Community Service program.
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 This growing pile of driftwood will be picked up by the Army Corp barge later this month
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2024 Kickoff Bioswale Work Session
Sunday, March 24, 2024
A small volunteer team of 5 addressed two invasive species today. The first is Lesser Celandine, now appearing in all sections. The second is bush honeysuckle, section 1 for today, but there's more in section 4 (next month).
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Tasks accomplished today
Removed Lesser Celandine in Section 2
Pulled & dug up bush honeysuckle, section 1
Pulled vines from the River Birch, section 1
Removal of wineberry & sweet autumn clematis, section 2
Amy begins to dig out Lesser Celandine. Masses of it showed up this spring
along the edge of the seawall, apparently deposited there by the river.
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 Dominique and Amy dig deep to remove Lesser Cellandine. They put the highly invasive plants in plastic bags, along with the dirt so as to not drop bits of roots or bulbils, which quickly can grow into many new plants. First time we've had to do this, and it turned out to be heavy work.
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 Gabriella tackles significant growth of Lesser Celandine by the ramp, sec 1
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 IF WE DON"T DO ANYTHING.... Lesser Celandine grows to the exclusion of native species
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 Gabriella pulls bush honeysuckle (green bushes) in section 1
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What's next? Jim and Gabriella view a thicket of bush honeysuckle (green under the tree) and decide how to proceed.
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IF WE DON"T DO ANYTHING.... bush honeysuckle grows tall and thick, to the exclusion of native bushes and trees (as in this view of the side of the road, M St near the boathouse.
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Jim employs the Big Daddy tree puller to extract some small
thorny saplings, section 1
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Closer view of Jim placing Big Daddy to grab a small tree trunk
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Bioswale beauty .....
The Shadbush (Serviceberry) are in bloom!
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Tasks for April work session
Clear around shrubs in sections 1, 4 & 5
Search & destroy Lesser Celandine if it can be identified
Remove more Bush Honeysuckle
Dig Phragmites, section 1?
Continue to remove wineberry sprouts
Dig the False Indigobush in Sec 1, 2 and 3
Pick up Pine cones under the big Pine
Cut out weedy trees from road fence
Rake debris into the river sec 5
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2024 Bioswale Work Session - Day of Service - Gonzaga and Georgetown Visitation HS
Saturday, March 16, 2024, 11am - 2pm
More than 50 Gonzaga rowers, their parents, and sister institution Georgetown Visitation came out to help in the bioswale and on the boathouse grounds for their annual Day of Service. What a great day! The leadership the coaches & parents provide these young men & women is beyond value. These are the stewards of our future.
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The following challenging tasks were accomplished:
Dug out False Indigobush, sections 1,2,3,4
Carried lg driftwood & stacked middle of sec 4
Removed brambles/vines from the rocks
Picked up massive trash accumulation
Cleared brush under big pine, west end.
Cleared stubborn grass (& roots) in front of Bioswale sign
Removed vines on the fence and clear behind the big tent
Raked in sections 2 & 3
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Plenty of tools, owned or borrowed, ready for the day
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The END of so much False Indigobush!!
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Removing brambles & clearing the rocks
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Wheeling the debris to the dumpsters
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The dumpster - only half of the final haul!
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A major effort to clear vines and brush from behind the big tent.
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A hard won False Indigobush stump - Yea!
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Lunch is served! Gonzaga parents brought pizzas, drinks, chips, dessert,
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The final big push - digging out a row of False Indigobush along the seawall in section 4.
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Clearing brambles from the rocks and digging out False Indigobush - fantastic team work!
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Tasks for March 24 work session
Remove wineberry sec 4
Dig the False Indigobush in Sec 4
Cut out weedy trees from road fence
Picked up & bag pine cones
Search & destroy Lesser Celandine
Dig Phragmites, section 1
Rake & pick up the pine cones
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Flattening and clearing the area under the Big Pine to prepare it for mowing.
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Large driftwood was gathered up and stacked in preparation for the ACOE barge which usually collects it in April.
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Winter appearance of native Switchgrass
Work Session Summaries 2024
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Students started out the work session with moving driftwood from all parts of the bioswale to the driftwood pile in section 4. 
The group divided into four teams, with each tackling one of four invasive species. The girls here are digging out Sweet Autumn Clematis. Another team identifies and removed brambles. 
A student uses the Big Daddy to pull up a bush honeysuckle sapling. 
This team located and dug up many invasive yellow iris from all parts of the bioswale. 
Beautiful Shadbush berries are ripening. 
The final project for today was to plant native bee balm and goldenrod seedlings in sections 2 and 3. 
A robin enjoy pecking for insects among the buttercups, under the river birches, section 5
ACBA Freshwater Mussel Project
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